


Always The Girl Who Dies

by pale_and_tragic



Category: Scream (Movies)
Genre: Concussions, Deviates From Canon, Female Friendship, Fix-It, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-28
Updated: 2019-12-28
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:08:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21998746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pale_and_tragic/pseuds/pale_and_tragic
Summary: Okay, fine, MAYBE in retrospect, going for the doggie door wasn’t the best idea, but look, some psycho in a mask corners you in a garage, and staying cool under pressure? Not really a thing.(Or, Tatum survives and retakes the role of Secondary Female Lead.)
Relationships: Sidney Prescott & Tatum Riley
Comments: 18
Kudos: 45





	Always The Girl Who Dies

**Author's Note:**

> So, I basically had to write a hasty decoy Yuletide fic this year while working on the Yuletide fic I was *actually* assigned, and this story is what happened. I really hoped I could at least gift it to someone; unfortunately, it REALLY doesn't fit what anyone else wanted, so . . . now it lives here, I guess?

Okay, fine, _maybe_ in retrospect, going for the doggie door wasn’t the best idea, but look, some psycho in a mask corners you in a garage, and staying cool under pressure? Not really a thing. Besides, Tatum was totally kicking that guy’s ass, and she’d almost squeezed all the way through before Psycho Boy got the bright idea to open the garage door; like, come on, that’s such a dick move. She _does_ make it outside, barely, frantically pushing her hips and ass through the doggie door; unfortunately, she only manages it at the very last second, when she’s already several feet in the air. Which means she’s tipped forward when she slips free. Which means she lands right on her head.

Tatum doesn’t pass out, exactly, but she definitely isn’t fully conscious, either, because that doesn’t happen until Psycho Boy stabs her in the shoulder.

He’d probably meant to stab her in the chest, or maybe to gut her, like he gutted Casey Becker, but she’d twitched at the last second, and the knife went into her shoulder instead. Shit, oh SHIT, it hurts, and it hurts even more when he tries to pull the knife out. But it won’t come; the blade must be stuck in the bone, or something. He tries again, and Tatum—reaching desperately for something, anything—finds a rock and hits him in the head with it.

Psycho Boy (Ghoul Face? Killer Guy? Mr. Stabby?) falls over, and Tatum _runs_ , faster than she’s ever run before, faster than she ever thought she could—although probably in the wrong direction. She needs to get help, which means she needs to get inside: find people, call the police, pick up a kitchen knife or a candlestick or something to defend herself with—but everything is dark and spinning, and somehow, she ends up even more isolated, surrounded by tall grass and trees. _Sidney’s gonna be so pissed at me_ , Tatum thinks, disoriented. She’s heard the rant often enough: some big-breasted girl who’s always running in the wrong direction, right? Tatum is always the girl who dies. _Sid, you’ve gotta get out of here. Sid, you’ve gotta make it_.

Then Tatum’s tripping on something—a rock, a stick, a hole, who knows—and falling behind a tall, sprawling bush. She tries to get up, she really does, tries to power through for a big, glorious return—but nope, she’s done; she can’t see anything anymore. Final curtain call, fade to black.

#

Good news: Tatum wakes up.

She doesn’t know how long it’s been since she passed out. Not too long, she doesn’t think. It’s still dark out. There’s no one around: Psycho Boy must have left her for dead. Big mistake. Tatum’s going to get the cops—not Dewey, of course, but the REAL cops. Tatum is getting the hell out of here. Tatum—

—isn’t going to abandon her best friend.

She tries to reason with herself. Sidney might not even be in the house anymore. Maybe she went home before any stabbing could commence: Sid’s not exactly a party animal these days, after all. Maybe she’s far away. Maybe she’s safe. And even if she isn’t . . . what the hell is Tatum supposed to do about it? She doesn’t have a weapon, except the one she can’t pull out of her shoulder. She doesn’t have any cool combat skills; she’s never even punched someone. All Tatum has to work with is sarcasm, a cute skirt, and a concussion; she’s not exactly Xena, Warrior Princess over here. The best thing she can do is . . . 

What? Walk all the way the police station? Hope she doesn’t get killed on the road? Hope her best friend doesn’t get killed while she’s busy running away? Bullshit. If Sidney’s still here, Tatum has to find her. She wouldn’t even have come to this party, if it wasn’t for Tatum. And Stu, Jesus. He probably has some delusion that he can handle himself against a psychopathic killer, just because he’s a Man—ugh, boys and their sexist garbage—but anyone who can take down Quarterback Steve? Yeah, no way, Stu’s toast. It’s up to Tatum to save Sid and Stu both. 

As soon as she’s stopped throwing up, that is. Jesus, concussions bite.

Tatum steadies herself against a tree, and then carefully makes her way back to the house. It seems mostly deserted. Maybe everyone’s already gone home. Maybe the killers have gone home, too. Wouldn’t that be awesome? She wouldn’t have to save anyone: she could just go to the hospital, get her head checked out, and convince her mom they need to move out of Woodsboro. Now. Tatum can finish high school somewhere else. She can do anything, as long as she’s alive to do it.

There’s a shape on the porch. Someone lying down. A body. It looks, it looks like . . .

Tatum covers her mouth. Oh Christ, oh fuck, it’s Dewey.

She tries to find a pulse, but can’t. Maybe she’s panicking too much? Maybe her fingers are in the wrong spot? He can’t really be dead, can he? He can’t, he’s . . . he’s _Dewey_. He’s too fucking dopey to die. He has to be alive—

Voices startle her. There are people still inside the house. The killer? Tatum can’t tell. But Sidney, she recognizes Sidney’s voice, frightened and angry, and . . . is that Stu? Billy? What the FUCK is Billy doing here, oh God, he really must be the killer, after all, oh shit—

Tatum creeps inside the house, listening, and what she hears—

She can’t believe it, not at first, not until she sees Stu and Billy with her own eyes. And then it’s impossible to deny, even though her brain keeps trying. _It couldn’t; he couldn’t_ —but he did. They both did. Which one of them tried to kill her? Stu, she guesses, mostly because it hurts more. It doesn’t really matter, though: they’re both total psychopaths. They tried to kill her, and they maybe killed her brother, and they’re definitely going to kill Sidney if Tatum doesn’t do something. She has to _do_ something.

There’s a gun.

Tatum picks it up. Her hands are shaking; she’s still a little dizzy, and she could definitely stand to throw up again—but still, she picks it up, and when Billy realizes the gun is gone, when he asks Stu where the fuck it is, Tatum points it straight at his face. 

“Right here, asshole,” she says, and tries to shoot him.

Shit, shit, SHIT.

Fucking psycho boys. Fucking safety.

#

This time, Tatum wakes up curled against her brother’s dead body.

_He might not be dead; you don’t know. You have to get help_ —

But her situation hasn’t changed, not really. Maybe if she gets inside, finds a phone, calls 911—but one way or another, she has to get up. Could Sid still be alive? Probably. Sid’s a stealth badass, always has been. Huge emotional issues, sure, but that’s only natural. If Tatum survives this, they can both go to therapy together.

Can Tatum survive this? She hasn’t exactly proven herself as a badass chick yet, like, she failed pretty miserably at the whole “coming to the rescue” thing. On the other hand, she’s still alive, which is more than she can say for a lot of people. Maybe “not dying” is her superpower. Or maybe not—maybe she’s just waiting to die at a more appropriately dramatic moment. Either way, Tatum knows that she is 100% done with this bullshit party.

Tatum gets up.

She hears Sidney’s voice first, then Randy’s. Then Billy, screaming obscenities. _Get some new lines_ , Tatum thinks, because she’s at least half-delirious by this point. No time to worry about that now; Tatum scrambles inside the house. Randy’s on the ground, maybe half-conscious, and Billy is standing over Sidney, strangling her. “Say hello to your mother,” he says, and when she fights back, Billy raises his knife in the air—

Tatum picks up the gun and shoots that fucker right in the chest. 

“Guess I remembered the safety that time,” she says. “Bastard.”

Sidney starts laughing.

Tatum starts laughing too. She weaves a little bit, as she steps further inside. They probably should call an ambulance or something. She sees Stu, or what’s left of Stu, underneath the broken television. “Sid, Super Bitch,” she murmurs appreciatively.

Sid, Super Bitch, hugs her hard enough they both almost fall down.

“I was sure you were dead,” Sidney says. “I couldn’t find you anywhere.”

“I got a little hung up,” Tatum says. She’ll explain the bad joke later.

They limp over to Randy, help him up, and then stare down together at Billy’s body. “Careful,” Randy says. “This is the moment when the supposedly dead killer comes back to life for one last scare.”

Tatum should probably give the gun to Sidney for this part. Sid’s the real Final Girl here, even though she isn’t the only girl who survived, and there’s probably, like, some emotional catharsis to be had, killing the boyfriend who tried to kill you. Then again, Tatum didn’t get the chance to experience that catharsis herself, and honestly, Sid’s had a pretty long day. She might not mind sitting this one out.

Billy’s eyes snap open, and he lunges—

Tatum shoots him in the head.

“Not in our movie,” Sidney says, and Tatum rests her head on Sid’s shoulder.

**Author's Note:**

> I decided to leave it open-ended if Gale or Dewey survived this particular AU, since neither character mattered so much to this particular retelling. Headcanon away!


End file.
